So many people showed up for a school board meeting in Loveland last month they had to sit on the floor and stand along the walls. Many of the roughly 400 people in attendance were angry, upset and wanted answers. For most local government meetings, 20 people showing up can be considered a crowd. Four hundred is all but unheard of. The driving force behind the big turnout was concern a...

This is how the new fascism works. The right-wing extremists work themselves carefully, slowly into every aspect of American life. Their funding and their efforts are hidden from view. Very much how the Brown Shirts did their work in the 1920s and early 1930s. Right wing fascism is insidious and, before you know it, it's ugly head is there, in place and supported.

I can only speak for Jeffco since that is where I live. I think that at least part of the reason for the way that they are acting is the anticipated fight on their hands with the entrenched bureaucracy. Us voters overwhelmingly voted them in because we want change. We are not happy with the status quo. The entrenched bureaucracy has built their careers and staked their pensions on maintaining that status quo. They will not go down without a fight. And look at how the media has attempted to tear the new board apart at every turn. There are definitely agendas at play here, but not just from the new school boards.

In Fort Morgan the school board told the voters we needed to pass a multimillion dollar tax increase to fund a matching grant from the state for a new school construction project and if the issue did not pass voter approval, some other school district would get "our" money. After the election, it was revealed that the supposed grant money had not been approved or received, but the tax increase will take effect. Supposedly it is just a technical issue to get "our" money, but still this seems to be symptomatic of education establishment, i.e.: if we can get it, we can spend it before someone else does.

walleyeman wrote:This is how the new fascism works. The right-wing extremists work themselves carefully, slowly into every aspect of American life. Their funding and their efforts are hidden from view. Very much how the Brown Shirts did their work in the 1920s and early 1930s. Right wing fascism is insidious and, before you know it, it's ugly head is there, in place and supported.

"They are the kinds of things Denver has been doing for quite some time. Expansion of charter and innovation schools seems to top the to-do lists".So you have those "Brown Shirts" in Denver also? Get a grip!Why do the democrats hate it, when Conservatives do the exact same thing back to them?Suck it up pal, they were "duly elected".

"Everybody has a plan, till they get punched in the mouth". Mike Tyson

walleyeman wrote:This is how the new fascism works. The right-wing extremists work themselves carefully, slowly into every aspect of American life. Their funding and their efforts are hidden from view. Very much how the Brown Shirts did their work in the 1920s and early 1930s. Right wing fascism is insidious and, before you know it, it's ugly head is there, in place and supported.

"They are the kinds of things Denver has been doing for quite some time. Expansion of charter and innovation schools seems to top the to-do lists".So you have those "Brown Shirts" in Denver also? Get a grip!Why do the democrats hate it, when Conservatives do the exact same thing back to them?Suck it up pal, they were "duly elected".

The best example of this hypocrisy in recent memory is the way that the Liberals/Democrats (same thing, really) tried to bring down the Jeffco school board. According to them, the actions of the board in hiring legal counsel was tantamount to the worse imaginable crime involving children or baby seals. Then Paula Noonan wrote a guest commentary exposing the actions of the former board and the superintendent. That rebuttal was met with a deafening silence, indicating that it must be true or more likely even worse than what Ms. Noonan was saying.

walleyeman wrote:This is how the new fascism works. The right-wing extremists work themselves carefully, slowly into every aspect of American life. Their funding and their efforts are hidden from view. Very much how the Brown Shirts did their work in the 1920s and early 1930s. Right wing fascism is insidious and, before you know it, it's ugly head is there, in place and supported.

"They are the kinds of things Denver has been doing for quite some time. Expansion of charter and innovation schools seems to top the to-do lists".So you have those "Brown Shirts" in Denver also? Get a grip!Why do the democrats hate it, when Conservatives do the exact same thing back to them?Suck it up pal, they were "duly elected".

The best example of this hypocrisy in recent memory is the way that the Liberals/Democrats (same thing, really) tried to bring down the Jeffco school board. According to them, the actions of the board in hiring legal counsel was tantamount to the worse imaginable crime involving children or baby seals. Then Paula Noonan wrote a guest commentary exposing the actions of the former board and the superintendent. That rebuttal was met with a deafening silence, indicating that it must be true or more likely even worse than what Ms. Noonan was saying.

The new majority on the Jefferson County School Board has taken a big hit for its decision to hire an attorney reporting directly to the Board of Education.

What recent critical commentary on the matter did not elucidate is that the school board has long had an attorney to provide it counsel. That attorney typically has not been retained in a public session.

In fact, the superintendent hired the previous attorney at a $150,000 salary with no discussion or vote by the former board. Jeffco also spent more than $400,000 in 2013 on the law firm of Caplan and Earnest and more than $60,000 with the law office of Carrie Kollar, both hired without any public process or conversation.

The district's former attorney, who reported directly to the superintendent, not the board, submitted his resignation before Thanksgiving 2013. The new board members didn't find out about this resignation until many days later from another board official from another district.

Clearly Jeffco's superintendent knew about the resignation at the time it was offered. Because the resignation date was set for a few days after the final board meeting of 2013, the board majority decided to put to a vote a motion to hire a new board attorney at that last 2013 meeting. The new attorney needed time with the former attorney before his last day.

No laws were broken in this process and a decision which was previously made without public discussion was made at the board table.

The board would have had about three weeks to vet legal firms if the superintendent had notified it immediately of the former attorney's resignation. She did not. Her decision broke the "common trust" principle that all board members are informed of critical issues in a timely manner and at the same time.

Transparency is served best when modeled at the top. All members of the new board, and Jeffco citizens, too, deserve the highest level of transparency from district leadership at all times. Nothing less will do.Follow us: @Denverpost on Twitter | Denverpost on Facebook

They really hate it when the other side doesn't roll over.

"Everybody has a plan, till they get punched in the mouth". Mike Tyson

walleyeman wrote:This is how the new fascism works. The right-wing extremists work themselves carefully, slowly into every aspect of American life. Their funding and their efforts are hidden from view. Very much how the Brown Shirts did their work in the 1920s and early 1930s. Right wing fascism is insidious and, before you know it, it's ugly head is there, in place and supported.

Chortle. Chortle.

Yes, this is exactly how the Nazis rose to power: Murky campaign funding!

PhilLeshFan wrote:I would wager that Ms. Caldwell has never used the term "liberal" in such an attempt to be pejorative with it.

Since Caldwell does not use "conservative" in a pejorative sense, all we get from your comment is an unrequested insight into a mind that could read such a negative sense into what otherwise might be called -- at its worst -- a rambling discussion of how those who proudly identify themselves with "the people" seem to be so afraid of oversight by those same "people."

DP: aren't there editors who could have cut out a hundred or two words or did you need to fill the page with anything?

Of course the parents and taxpayers should be concerned and comparing their situations to what's going on in Douglas County. DougCo school board members' elections were funded by the same puppeteers, McVaney, Nagel and Cranberg. Now here we are with parent and teacher surveys ignored, public comment limited at board meetings, and time spent by the board behind closed doors up by over 400%. Central administration cots are up, while funds to classrooms are down. Worst of all, an administrative law judge has ruled that they BROKE THE LAW in spending taxpayer dollars to influence the most recent election. Of course they should be concerned.

Why don't you tell us who paid for the campaign to elect Dalhkamper and Fellman, the "Jeffco Moms", two elections ago, or do those campaign contributions not matter?

Caldwell is obsessed with the new attorney that the JeffCo board hired, but says nothing about the attorney that Dahlkamper and Fellman hired when they were in the majority on the Jeffco school board. Then there was the sudden, secret resignation of that attorney. Former Jeffco superintendent Cindy Stevinson also abruptly resigned. Both resignations happened after the reform board members were elected in the last election.

What mysterious agenda was at work that led to two abrupt resignations, one of them done secretly? That's a rhetorical question of course because Caldwell won't look at it.

The reform agenda isn't mysterious outside of the Denver Post echo chamber. The editors of the Denver Post can't comprehend it when voters reject their agenda.

It is obvious some bloggers who use such terms as status quo don't have a clue what is going on in schools. With legislative mandates that are generally unfounded yet forced on administrators and teachers to implement there is no status quo.

Many people speak without being in a school over the last give years to see that the status quo is anything but what us happening in schools. It takes money to make change and keep up with technology. Aside from the charter "semi-private" environments that are funded by the general public taxpayer it is difficult to make the necessary changes for the masses without resources in personnel and money!

walleyeman wrote:This is how the new fascism works. The right-wing extremists work themselves carefully, slowly into every aspect of American life. Their funding and their efforts are hidden from view. Very much how the Brown Shirts did their work in the 1920s and early 1930s. Right wing fascism is insidious and, before you know it, it's ugly head is there, in place and supported.

When the liberals get elected is a victory for diversity. When conservative get elected its fascism. What a ridiculous comment. Liberals love to celebrate diversity as long as your opinion is the same as theirs. Before you compare people to fascists, shouldn't you have some evidence? Is it vouchers that are fascist? Religion in schools? What exactly makes these people "fascists"?

Before the election, I read extensively on what has happened in Douglas County and that is not what I want for my grandchildren who are in the Thompson Valley School District. I believe that there IS a hidden agenda when these positions in the past have been neutral without either side declaring a party, but in this district, the REPUBLICAN party circulated fliers indicating which candidates were Republican for not only the school district, but also for our city council members. Add to that the money that flowed into those "Republican Candidates" from the wealthy in Denver and one can only surmise that their is something up their sleeves that they don't want to publicize right now. Time will tell, and I hope EVERY parent will become aware of the situation and if warranted, start recall petitions! We need to save our public schools, make them better, and protect our teachers who work diligently to educate our children.

Steve old school wrote:It is obvious some bloggers who use such terms as status quo don't have a clue what is going on in schools. With legislative mandates that are generally unfounded yet forced on administrators and teachers to implement there is no status quo.

Many people speak without being in a school over the last give years to see that the status quo is anything but what us happening in schools. It takes money to make change and keep up with technology. Aside from the charter "semi-private" environments that are funded by the general public taxpayer it is difficult to make the necessary changes for the masses without resources in personnel and money!

Our schools are in a transitional period as they implement "Common Core" while still testing under past conditions. Common Core will help our children become better thinkers and will help them to progress easier in this complicated world . . . give it time to work out!

StillUndecided wrote:I can only speak for Jeffco since that is where I live. I think that at least part of the reason for the way that they are acting is the anticipated fight on their hands with the entrenched bureaucracy. Us voters overwhelmingly voted them in because we want change. We are not happy with the status quo. The entrenched bureaucracy has built their careers and staked their pensions on maintaining that status quo. They will not go down without a fight. And look at how the media has attempted to tear the new board apart at every turn. There are definitely agendas at play here, but not just from the new school boards.

A turnout of registered voters of just 43%, and a turnout of only 30-ish percent who cast votes in the school board election hardly makes up a situation where anyone "overwhelmingly voted them in" . . .

Hopefully the following does not apply to the school boards mentioned in Caldwell's article. I am writing this because over the years there is turnover on school boards, and this is a "long"-term plan:

In a workshop in Washington, DC, September 1996, the director of the North Carolina Education Reform Foundation addressed Christian Coalition members. She stated, "We must eliminate public education as it is structured today and reinvent it in a new form." The NCERF literature distributed outlined the plan to eliminate public education. The first step would be to establish charter schools. Charter schools would provide a pool of independent schools to meet the growing demand for private education once voucher laws were passed. After that, persons who wanted religious education would initiate the conversion of charter schools into private schools. That ultimately would result in private religious schools paid for by taxpayer money. The November/December 1996 IFAS article is entitled "Coalition called to eliminate schools." It is posted at Public Eye.

Gary North, of Tyler, Texas - an influential, prolific Christian Reconstructionist writer - stated in 1982, "So let us be blunt about it: we must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God." Unfettered corporate power and unregulated capitalism are very much a part of the focus. North is Tea Party economist and an adjunct scholar at the Ludwig von Mises Institute (of Austrian economics).